Michelle's Musings

The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner is a book I fell in love with the minute I began chapter one. Let me try to sum this up without ruining any plot lines for you.

The book takes place in two time periods, the late 1790s and the present day. In the past timeline, we meet an old woman that makes poisons to kill men and only men. These men would have wronged a woman in some way or they would not have been poisoned.

The present-day timeline introduces us to a woman that is very unhappy in her lot. She is looking for something to complete the empty spot in her life when she joins a group and discovers a vial that once belonged to an apothecary. This little action starts a journey to discover the past and creates a new problem as well.

I thought this book was perfect from start to finish. I would not change a thing from the cover to the last page.

The book pick for April is......

I will admit I had no idea what this month's pick was about when I put it on hold. I only knew that anything Susan Meissner writes, Michelle will read. I loved this one from the first page.

Imagine a mail-order bride traveling across the country to an unknown place knowing she will become a wife and mother almost the minute she steps off the train in San Francisco. Martin (her new husband) will, at first, seem like a perfect husband, gentle, patient, giving, that will soon fall as Sophie sees he is a bit standoffish with his child, a bit evasive with her, and not willing to share much about his life. He is a man with a secret, but then she is a bride with a secret, and the child will also have a secret. Secrets tend to have a way of revealing themselves, and come out when you least expect them to. Throw in a natural disaster like an earthquake and you have lots of drama that will literally keep you on the edge of your seat.

I don't think there is anything about this book that you won't like.